Predictions for Upcoming Season of “Red Vs Blue”

On March 28, the machinima production company RoosterTeeth released the trailer for the next season of Red Vs Blue, a web-series created using the popular Halo video game series. Ever since the Recollections trilogy ended with Revelation in September 2010, RVB fans have been eager to see what our favorite band of hapless soldiers will get involved with next.

The trailer starts off as Agent Maine is brought into a medical facility. Viewers get their first glimpse (albeit a partial one) of Leonard Church, the director of Project Freelancer. As Maine is in surgery Agent Washington is questioned by Director Church about the mission that they were meant to complete. After Church leaves, Washington notices Agent York standing behind him.Â The two talk about the chance of Maine’s survival, which does not look good. Washington comments that things seem to be moving so much faster, to which York replies by saying that the universe is going too fast and that they are simply trying to catch up and removes his helmet, showing the wound on his eye from a recent fight. This marks the first time that a character’s face is revealed in Red Vs Blue, as their faces are obscured by their helmets.

It seems to me that the upcoming season is a prequel to Blood Gulch Chronicles, which are the first five seasons of the Red Vs Blue series. York was dead at the beginning of Reconstruction, which was the sixth season, and Agent South was shot by Washington during season six. The trailer clearly shows a scene with York, South and Tex about to enter a fight. Maine is also referred to by his name in Project Freelancer as opposed to the Meta, which he was known as for the Recollections trilogy.

Agent Washington also mentions the AIs, though he needs to remind himself what they were called. If this was to occur after the end of Revelation Washington would already know about the AIs since he was assigned the Epsilon AI. Washington is also seen in his silver and yellow armor, which he wore before he joined the Blues from Blood Gulch at the end of season eight and changed armor color to avoid being recognized by Project Freelancer. There is no way that Washington would wear his old armor around Director Church when he does not want to be recognized.

It’s possible that season nine is just Epsilon reliving his memories. The end of season eight reveals that Epsilon is going to be living the rest of his life in the Alpha’s memories of Blood Gulch, even showing when the Blues got their infamous tank. The scenes involving members of Project Freelancer could quite possibly be memories that Epsilon is reliving. He could also be trying to cope with the horrors that he dealt with while he was involved with Project Freelancer that lead to his mental breakdown.

RoosterTeeth used a lot of CGI in the trailer, which is obvious when York removes his helmet to show his real face. Burnie Burns, the main writer for the series, has said that the series will have animated parts and in-game parts, meaning parts of the episode will be shot using the game engine, but without the use of CGI. Although the two were combined at several points in Revelation, such as the time when Tucker and the Reds fought Tex, the two will, for the most part, be separate. I’m hesitant about the excess use of CGI, as I feel that things that can only be done in the game engine should be part of the series, but I’m still curious to see how they will use it to advance the story.

As with the end of Revelation, the new season will be filmed using the game engine for Halo Reach, which was released the day after season eight ended in 2010. Members of the Blood Gulch team were seen wearing the armor used in Halo Reach and maps featured in Reach were used in the trailer.

While the trailer looks absolutely amazing, viewers will have to wait just a bit longer to see what happens. The end of the trailer revealed that the new season won’t start until this summer. Until then I’ll be re-watching the series from start to finish and checking the website for any further developments.